Method of making shirts and the like



May 27, 19-58 A. HABERMAN METHOD'OF MAKING SHIRTS AND THE LIKE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 21. 1854 4 INVENTOR. A? [e wander Haberman y 1958 A. HABERMAN METHOD OF MAKING SHIRTS AND THE LIKE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 21. 1954 V I N V EN TOR. 191611121 81 7 Haber/nan HTTORNEYS,

METHOD OF MAKING SHIRTS AND THE LIKE Alexander Haber'man, New York, N. Y.

Application December 21, 1954, Serial No. 476,778

2 Claims. (Cl. 2- 415) The present invention relates to the manufacture of open front shirts and analogous articles of clothing and aims to provide certain improvements in such manufacture.

In the mass production of shirts and analogous articles of clothing, the conventional practice is as follows: (a) the fabric is first laid out on a long table into a plurality of superposed registering plies; (b) on the topmost ply the pattern outlines of the component parts of the garment are then delineated; (c) the plurality of plies of material are then cut along the pattern outlines with a power-operated cutting machine; and (d) the component parts of the garments are then sewed together. In accordance with said procedure the operations (b) and (c) must be performed by skilled craftsmen who command high wages and hence constitute a material factor in the ultimate cost of the garments. Furthermore, as conventionally produced, the body portion of an open front shirt and similar garments are made from five separate parts, viz.two front sections, a back section, a neck section and a neck'oand section and, in the laying out of the patterns, great skill must be exercised to obtain the maximum number of useful sections with a minimum of waste material. The primary object of the present invention is to substantially reduce the cost of manufacturing open front shirts and analogous articles of clothing.

A further object of tie invention is to eliminate the use of skilled craftsmen in the laying out, patterning and cutting of the material.

A still further object of the invention is to reduce to an irreducible minimum the amount of waste in the manufacture of open front shirts and the like. 7

The foregoing and other objects of the invention, not specifically enumerated, I accomplish by the following novel procedures: (1) the fabric from which the shirts and the like are to be made is woven to a desired predetermined width equal to the total width of the body portion of the garment, i. e., the combined widths of the back and two front sections; (2) the fabric is accordion folded to a length equal to the full length of the body portion of the garment; (3) the fabric so folded into a multiplicity of plies is placed on the base of a punch and die press; and (4) a unitary cutting punch operation is used to blank out the body portion in one piece and also, if desired, to blank out the additional parts of the garment such as the cuffs, collar-band, collar, pocket sections, etc., which additional parts are obtainable from the folded material within the clearance areas provided by the armholes, shoulders, etc., when the one piece body portion is punched out.

The invention will be more fully appreciated and understood from the detailed description which follows, when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a front view of a type of garment to which the present invention is directed.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a piece of fabric employed and showing lines along which the fabric is to be acfitates atent cordion folded in performing one step of the method embodying my invention.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of means for carrying out a further step of the invention.

Fig. 4 is a side elevational view of the folded fabric as presented to the punch and die shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 illustrates diagrammatically the manner in which a plurality of blanks of the folded fabric of Fig. 4 may be simultaneously punched out for making shirt bodies and additional parts of a shirt.

Referring to the drawings, the reference numeral represents a fabric of indefinite length woven to a predetermined desired width which is equal to the combined widths of the back portion a and two front portions b and b of a shirt body shown in Fig. 5. The width of the fabric will be determined by the size of the shirt, it being apparent that a size 16 shirt body will be wider than a size 14. -The fabric is then accordion folded, preferably by the fabric finisher, along lines of fold '11 into a multiplicity of superposed registering plies 12 each having a length equal to the length of the shirt body. Here again, the folded length will vary and be dependent upon the size of the shirt. The accordion folded fabric is then presented to a cutting punch 13 and die 14 of the desired garment section pattern and, upon operating the punch, the desired garment sections are simultaneously blanked out.

Basically, the punch and die will have a continuous outline corresponding to the shirt body, consisting of the back section a and the two front sections b and b (Fig. 5), and each ply of the fabric as blanked out will provide a body portion having neck edges 15, 15a and 15b, shoulder edges 16, 17, 18 and 19, sleeve hole edges 20, 21, front tail edges 22, 23, and a back tail edge 24. In this blanking out operation, areas 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 of the folded plies outside of the blanked out body portion will result, and each area will contain a line of fold 11 of the fabric and thereby have double the ap- 3 parent area of each of said parts, which will be symmetrical with respect to the fold lines. These areas may be used to provide material for cuff sections 30, a double thickness of which is required for each cuff; collar band section 31 and collar section 32, which likewise re quire double thickness of material; pocket sections 33, pocket flap sections 34 and additional salvaged mate rial from areas and 26 which may be used to make sleeve bands 35. Of course, it is within the province of the present invention to blank out the sections to 35 either simultaneously with the blanking. out of the body portions or as a separate operation from the blanked out areas of folded plies 25 to 29. I

In manufacturing a shirt from a shirt body blank, the shoulder edges 16, 17, and 18, 19, are sewed together and the lateral edge portions are folded along lines 36, 37, and sewed to form the front flaps or flies 38, 39, for accommodating the buttonholes and buttons, respectively. The body portion as thus fabricated will then have sewed thereto, the neck-band, collar band, collar, pocket and pocket flap, and the raw edges 22, 23, and 24 finished off to complete the shirt. The sleeves may be similarly blanked out, and after being completed they will be sewed in the sleeve holes of the shirt body.

By forming the fabric to predtermined width, accordion folding the fabric to desired length, simultaneously blanking out from such folded fabric shirt bodies utilizing the full width and folded length of the fabric and thereby salvaging and utilizing the blanked out areas of twice their pattern size, it will be appreciated that I have provided a method of shirt manufacturing whereby all the objects of the invention as set forth in the opening statement of this description are realized. It is to be understood, however, while I have shown and described the invention with respect to the manufacture of mens open front shirts, that the concept underlying my invention is applicable to the manufacture of analogous garments and is to 'be construed in the scope ofthe appended claims. r

What I claim is: Y

1. The method of manufacturing open front shirts which comprises, accordion folding transversely to its length, an indefinite length of fabric of uniform Width to provide a multiplicity of superposed registering plies and simultaneously cutting from said superposed plies primary blanks including the unitary body portion of an open front shirt consisting of two front sections, a back section and a neck section, the combined widths of the two front sections and the back section being equal to the the body portion secondary blanks including the lines of 20 fold in the accordion folded fabric and having double the area symmetrical with the lines of fold which are sufliciently large when unfolded to form the collar band,

' 4 the collar and the cuffs for the shirt, and cutting from said double areas of plies of the secondary blanks while retaining the 'lines of folds therein, the collar band, the collar and, the cufis for the shirt.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the various primary and secondary blanks are simultaneously blanked out from the accordion folded fabric.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 676,228 Granger June 11, 1901 1,896,596 Seddon Feb. 7, 1933 1,974,203 Collins Sept. 18, 1934 2,027,925 Murray Jan. 14, 1936 2,243,668 Cash May 27, 1941 2,598,172 Humphlett May 27, 1952 2,646,120 Pietrafesa July 21, 1953 2,676,327 Terry 1 Apr. 27, 1954 2,692,020 Oberhardt Oct. 19, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS v 4,055 Great Britain Nov. 1, 1877 

